Intelligence and changes in regional cerebral glucose metabolic rate following learning

Positron emission tomography (PET) studies of brain glucose metabolic rate (GMR) in normal volunteers report inverse correlations between GMR and scores on the Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) and verbal fluency. A new study in eight normal men reports widespread significant GMR decreases following learning a complex task (the computer game “Tetris”). The purpose of this study is to ascertain the correlations between GMR changes following learning “Tetris” and psychometric intelligence scores (RAPM and WAIS-R) to determine whether high-ability subjects show the largest GMR decreases, as predicted by a brain efficiency hypothesis. This hypothesis is supported with significant correlations between the magnitude of GMR change and intelligence scores in many brain areas that changed with learning. Some implications for the role of attention, memory, and speed of processing are discussed in view of the specific brain areas involved.     

Biofeedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals

Relatively few procedures exist for developing heterosexual arousal in the treatment of sexual deviation (Barlow, 1973) although several recent studies suggest this is a necessary component of treatment (Feldman and MacCulloch, 1971; Bancroft, 1970; Barlow, 1974).In recent years, biofeedback techniques have been applied to many types of disorders (Blanchard and Young, 1974). Basic to biofeedback technology is the notion that providing a person with feedback (or immediate information) of a bioelectric response enables him to learn (gain) self-control of that response. These responses traditionally have been considered involuntary and include heart rate (Scott et al., 1973a). blood pressure (Benson et al., 1971), stomach acid pH (Welgan. 1972), and electroencephalographic activity (Sterman, 1972), In the present experiments, biofeedback and its attendant technology was applied to the problem of generating heterosexual arousal in homosexual males.Frequently, in biofeedback research, reinforcement has been used in addition to feedback in attempting to teach self-control of a response. In fact, an alternate way of conceptualizing and describing the biofeedback research is in terms of operant conditioning (e.g., Weiss and Engel, 1971: Scott et al., 1973b). In one sense, however, feedback and reinforcement are inextricably confounded: the delivery or non-delivery of a reinforcer provides the S with information about the rightness or wrongness of his response and hence, binary feedback about it. Likewise, if feedback or knowledge of whether the response has reached a criterion level or not is effective in leading to a change in the response, then feedback functions as a reinforcer. Reinforcement, however, may be viewed as providing both information about the response (feedback) plus an incentive to change it in the desired direction in addition to any incentive provided by successful performance of a task. Thus, if one provides Ss with a separate, functionally defined reinforcer in such a way that no additional information about the response is conveyed, it becomes possible to detect additive effects of reinforcement over feedback effects. Such was the second purpose of this study.Several recent analogue experiments with volunteers have reported success in modifying erections through feedback and/or reinforcement. Price (1973) found that heterosexual volunteers who received analogue visual feedback as well as binary feedback, provided by a colored light once the needle had passed a pre-set criterion, showed a shorter latency to peak erection and maintained criterion erection longer than a control group receiving no feedback. Both groups were listening to erotic audio tapes. Rosen (1973) demonstrated significant suppression of tumescence in a group of heterosexual volunteers provided with response contingent signal lights. A group receiving non-contingent feedback did not show this effect. In a technical paper, Laws and Pawlowski (1973) have suggested audio feedback of tumescence as a treatment for deficits in sexual arousal.In the clinic, Harbison, Quinn and McAllister (1970), in an uncontrolled case study, reported increasing heterosexual responsiveness in homosexuals through reinforcement of erection. In one of their homosexual patients they were able, over a long series of trials, to increase erection to a heterosexual stimulus (female slide) through rewarding progressively larger responses with sips of iced lime after the patient was water deprived. In addition to the reinforcement, this S was given feedback, of sorts, in that a light was flashed for each successful trial. A second homosexual patient was similarly rewarded for maintaining progressively longer and clearer fantasies of heterosexual behavior. Since other treatments were also applied and no experimental analysis was performed, it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure.In the present experiment the separate effects of feedback and reinforcement to increase heterosexual arousal in homosexuals was experimentally evaluated using single case experimental design methodology (Barlow and Hersen, 1973). Since each experiment was somewhat different in design and purpose, each will be described separately.     

Precocious conservation in context: The solution of quantity tasks by nonquantitative strategies

C. Sinha and B. Carabine's (1981, Journal of Child Language, 8, 109–129) claim of a U-shaped course to the development of quantitative knowledge with an early stage of conservation based on functional significance was tested in two experiments. Children at three age groups from 3 to 6 years were presented with the original procedure or control versions in which the display was slightly altered. Results showed that although Sinha and Carabine's result was replicable, their interpretation is unwarranted. Performance in the younger groups was best interpreted as the use of nonquantitative possession or position strategies.     

Primal seduction, matricial space and asymmetry in the psychoanalytic encounter

Wishing to highlight the asymmetric dimension that characterizes ethics as 'responsibility toward the other' in Levinas's philosophy, the author presents as an introduction three related concepts of Levinas's thinking: the caress, the face, the saying. Following some poetic narrative reflections offered as 'interlude' moments, the author seeks to bring together her concept of 'matricial space' inspired by Levinas's conception of ethics and the Laplanchian concept of 'primal seduction', both based on asymmetry. She suggests adding to Laplanche's proposition of two kinds of transference (filled-in transference and hollowed-out transference) a third kind: the matricial-space transference. She argues that together with the hollowed-out transference, which is related to the primal seduction, the matricial-space transference, which relates to the matricial position in the parent/analyst, is provoked by the analyst. If the hollowed-out transference assures the moving-on of the analysis, the matricial-space transference, in combination with the hollowed-out transference, is prerequisite for transformation to occur and may be deciphered specifically in 'impasse' situations, at what she coined 'subjectal moments'. As a conclusion, while insisting on the need for asymmetry in the analytic encounter, she suggests the existence in the human neonate of a need for ethics, and she questions the origin of the human capacity to be responsible toward the other. She illustrates her argument using clinical material from her own work alongside that of other authors.     

L'activité conversationnelle d'un jury de validation d'acquis : analyse interlocutoire de la formation d'un concept potentiel

In this contribution, authors try to give an interlocutory analysis of a particular verbal and work situation: a face to face activity of acquired knowledge validation panel. The analysis is made in order to verify the hypothesis that conversational activity, that realises an evaluative activity, is both the place and the instrument of the construction of a potential concept. Vygotski (1934/1997) calls “potential concept” the meeting between a concrete meaning, developed in action, with a “scientific concept”.     

Further refinement of video‐based brief multiple‐stimulus without replacement preference assessments

We compared the results of a brief video‐based multiple‐stimulus without replacement preference assessment with no access to chosen activities (MSWO‐NO) to the results of the same assessment with access (MSWO‐WA) with four children with autism. We also compared instructor rankings of activities to MSWO‐WA results. Strong to moderate correlations between MSWO‐NO and MSWO‐WA assessment results were found across all participants. The correlation between MSWO‐WA and instructor rankings ranged from strong to low across all participants. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Revised Diagnostic Profile 2016: Revisions,Rationale, and Further Thoughts

ABSTRACT

In 2001, a working party at the Anna Freud Centre undertook the task of looking at Anna Freud’s original Provisional Diagnostic Profile and seeing if, in the light of current knowledge, modifications should be made. A broad view of the mind as a complex dynamic system sculpted out of biopsychosocial forces underpins the chapter with reference to allied disciplines and research. The chapter considers the rationale for adding certain features and highlighting and/or reframing others. In shifting the emphases from the original drive theory perspective to an explicitly object relational one, the authors acknowledge the altered metapsychology while arguing that the revisions preserve the original psychoanalytic and developmental template, including the importance of the psychosexual organization. The authors offer their suggestions to the question in 2015: would yet further revisions need to be made and if so which? The working party reconvened in 2016 to further revise the Provisional Diagnostic Profile.     

Asian and European American Cultural Values,Bicultural Competence,and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help Among Asian American Adolescents

The authors examined the extent to which Asian American adolescents who were living in Hawaii adhered to Asian and European American cultural values in relation to mental health variables including collective self‐esteem (membership, private, public, importance to identity), cognitive flexibility, general self‐efficacy, and attitudes toward seeking professional psychological help. Results and implications for counselors are discussed. Los autores examinaron hasta qué medida los adolescentes Asiaticoamericanos residentes en Hawai se adhieren a los valores culturales Asiáticos y Euroamericanos en relación a ciertas variables de salud mental que incluyen la autoestima colectiva (pertenencia, privada, pública, su importancia para la identidad), flexibilidad cognitiva, autoeficacia general y actitudes hacia la búsqueda de ayuda psicológica profesional. Se discuten los resultados y las implicaciones para los consejeros.